This work is not fiction. Much of the story is taken from a diary I kept over a six-year period. There are several themes running throughout the story simultaneously, but the framework of the story is built around my life leading up to my arrest, followed my conviction of a white-collar crime and subsequent incarceration in a federal prison located in Colorado. The final chapter deals with my release on parole and my coming to terms with my family, integrating back into society, finding gainful employment, and most importantly, emotionally dealing with the reality of the damage I caused.
One of the underlying themes addresses my emotional state and attitude leading up to my arrest, throughout my prison term, and into my first two years of parole. I have attempted to employ subtle and gradual changes in the voice and tone of the narrative as a way of engaging the reader with my state of mind in real time as I struggled to recover from narcissistic and grandiose issues. Intertwined, another theme speaks to walking a fine line between following prison rules of conduct while not violating the longstanding convict rules of behavior. Lastly, the reader will be introduced to individual convicts and their personalities and stories. The reader will get a feeling of what prison society is like and a realistic insight into the personalities and attitudes of people charged with guarding the inmates.
Like most stories, there is drama, sadness, anger, humor, and violence. There is even an escape from the prison camp. The names used in this story are fictitious, but the people they are assigned to are real. The few exceptions are people who were famous before they became infamous.
The target audience is the general public but more specifically those currently serving time in jail, doing prison time, their families, and those people on the verge of being sent to prison. The purpose of this work is to inform the public, encourage those locked up to do the right thing, and warn those considering a criminal career.
